The GIMP and Y2K

Last updated: 04 October 2000

The #1 question on everyone's mind lately seems to be:

``Is the GIMP Y2K compliant?''

As one of the gimp.org webmasters (Adrian, I think) said:

``I have no idea if the gimp is Y2K compliant,
and have no real intention to verify it one way
or the other. If you need it to be certified
Y2K compliant, I can give it the unoffical
"gimp.org webmaster said its probably Y2K
compliant" stamp of approval, but that is about
it. If you would like a more valid compliance
check, all the source code is available for
anyone willing to certify it. If someone
does such, and patches are required, we would
gladly accept such patches and incorporate
them into the next release.''

Since GIMP is released as source, and is strictly a volunteer
effort, at this point nobody is certifying anything. Even if
we did certify a particular source release, anyone could patch
or modify it before building it, and it would be extremely
difficult to determine what had happened. This could result
in personal liability problems for the certifiers, and a black
eye for the GIMP.

The GIMP doesn't manipulate dates, per se (unless some plug-in
I'm not familiar with does). At least, it didn't the last time
I ran a scan on the source. All file timestamping is handled
by the operating system. Since UNIX and its clones and variants
(such as AIX, Linux, BSD, HP-UX, Irix, Solaris, and so forth)
use a 32-bit offest counting seconds since 00:00 on January 1,
1970, all such operating systems should handle file timestamps
correctly until sometime after the year
2030AD. 1

I have absolutely no idea what the implications of running the
GIMP on any other operating system are.

The GIMP also utilizes the X Window System. I don't believe
there is anything inherent in the X Window System that would
have Y2K problems, but you would have to get that assurance
from your X vendor.